Viper Strike

The thieves guilds of Oriath teach a wicked skill to all initiates - the feared Viper Strike. Employing the skill, a claw, dagger or sword user coats their weapon with deadly venom, a concoction so virulent it permanently marks any weapon it contacts. Once the toxin is applied, the weapon will poison any it strikes, burning deep into their veins, causing wracking, crippling pain. Additional hits will increase the concentration of the toxin, stacking it up to lethal levels quickly. Few have survived an assault of Viper Strike and those who have never forget the agony.

Description on the official Path of Exile website

Viper Strike is an attack that hits the enemy with chaos damage and applies poison.

Skill functions and interactions

Viper Strike applies Poison on hit that unlike the default lasts 8 seconds. Viper Strike specifically overrides the poison duration with its own base skill duration.

is an especially good curse to use with Viper Strike. It has an immediate effect on the initial hit, which directly increases the DoT ticks that follow. Above and beyond that, vulnerability introduces extra bonuses for DoT damage, and so the curse has a kind of double-dip effect for boosting total VS damage.

Gem level progression

Level			Damage Effectiveness	Attack Damage	Exp.	Total Exp.
1	1	0	90%	90%	0	0
2	2	0	93%	93.4%	70	70
3	4	16	97%	96.7%	308	378
4	7	22	100%	100.1%	1554	1932
5	11	31	103%	103.5%	6667	8599
6	16	41	107%	106.8%	26047	34646
7	20	50	110%	110.2%	49725	84371
8	24	58	114%	113.6%	95714	180085
9	28	67	117%	116.9%	169595	349680
10	32	75	120%	120.3%	283759	633439
11	36	83	124%	123.7%	453996	1087435
12	40	92	127%	127.1%	703128	1790563
13	44	100	130%	130.4%	1061223	2851786
14	48	109	134%	133.8%	2065870	4917656
15	52	117	137%	137.2%	2507110	7424766
16	56	125	141%	140.5%	5798936	13223702
17	60	134	144%	143.9%	15083919	28307621
18	64	142	147%	147.3%	27792735	56100356
19	67	148	151%	150.6%	43869739	99970095
20	70	155	154%	154%	242081556	342051651
21	72	159	157%	157.4%	N/A	N/A
22	74	N/A	161%	160.7%	N/A	N/A
23	76	N/A	164%	164.1%	N/A	N/A
24	78	N/A	167%	167.5%	N/A	N/A
25	80	N/A	171%	170.8%	N/A	N/A
26	82	N/A	174%	174.2%	N/A	N/A
27	84	N/A	178%	177.6%	N/A	N/A
28	86	N/A	181%	180.9%	N/A	N/A
29	88	N/A	184%	184.3%	N/A	N/A
30	90	N/A	188%	187.7%	N/A	N/A
31	91	N/A	189%	189.4%	N/A	N/A
32	92	N/A	191%	191.1%	N/A	N/A
33	93	N/A	193%	192.7%	N/A	N/A
34	94	N/A	194%	194.4%	N/A	N/A
35	95	N/A	196%	196.1%	N/A	N/A
36	96	N/A	198%	197.8%	N/A	N/A
37	97	N/A	199%	199.5%	N/A	N/A
38	98	N/A	201%	201.2%	N/A	N/A
39	99	N/A	203%	202.8%	N/A	N/A
40	100	N/A	205%	204.5%	N/A	N/A

Threshold Jewel

The following threshold jewels augment the skill gem: #invoke: Item table

Related helmet enchantments

The following helmet enchantments affect Viper Strike.

Note that helmet enchantments are no longer obtainable since version 3.23.0 and can only be obtained in permanent leagues as already enchanted items from before this patch.

Name		Labyrinth	Stats	Spawn Weighting
Enchantment Viper Strike Critical Strike Chance 1	66	Merciless Labyrinth	60% increased Viper Strike Critical Strike Chance	helmet 100
Enchantment Viper Strike Critical Strike Chance 2	75	Eternal Labyrinth	90% increased Viper Strike Critical Strike Chance	helmet 100
Enchantment Viper Strike Damage 1	66	Merciless Labyrinth	25% increased Viper Strike Damage	helmet 100
Enchantment Viper Strike Damage 2	75	Eternal Labyrinth	40% increased Viper Strike Damage	helmet 100
Enchantment Viper Strike Poison Duration 1	66	Merciless Labyrinth	20% increased Viper Strike Duration	helmet 100
Enchantment Viper Strike Poison Duration 2	75	Eternal Labyrinth	30% increased Viper Strike Duration	helmet 100

Version history

Version	Changes
2.4.0	11% more damage at gem level 20.
2.1.0	Attack skills that have their damage based on the wielded weapon have their mana costs fixed in place from level 1 onwards. Viper Strike now applies poison on hit and has a 100% chance to do so. Viper Strike now has 25% of its physical damage converted to chaos (instead of 10% physical added as chaos). Poisons applied by Viper Strike have a base duration of 8 seconds (up from 7 seconds). The Base Damage of Viper Strike has been increased from 100% to 130% at level 1, and from 122.8% to 160.4% at level 20.
1.2.0	This skill now adds 10% of physical damage as Chaos Damage and has a 50% chance to deal 175% of the attack's damage as chaos damage over seven seconds. The effect duration won't be refreshed by new attacks, but there is no limit to how many Viper Strike debuffs an enemy can have.
1.0.3	Damage progression has been increased. It is now around 15% better at level 15 than it was in 1.0.2.
1.0.2b	Fixed a bug where area damage bonuses would not benefit Viper Strike when supported by .
1.0.2	Generic modifiers to damage dealt will now apply to damage over time that your character causes. Damage over time is not spell damage, nor attack damage, so modifiers specific to those types will not apply. Non-specific "increased damage" modifiers will apply to damage over time. Type-specific modifiers will apply as well. For example, "increased fire damage" modifiers will apply to fire damage over time. Viper Strike can be supported by , now that the damage penalty also applies.
0.9.13	Viper Strike is now 38% better at level 1 and 3% better at level 15.
0.9.12qq	From 0.35% attack speed per quality point to 0.5%.
0.9.12d	Fixed a server crash that could occur with Viper Strike.
0.9.5	Fixed Viper Strike so that damage from the degeneration is scaled properly for PvP.
0.9.4	Increased the damage.
0.9.2	Viper Strike does more damage at higher levels than before. Reduced maximum number of charges to 4.
0.9.1	Reduced Viper Strike duration at lower levels.
0.8.7	Viper Strike added to the game.